A group of employees at the Michigan Department of Human Services cannot pursue their discrimination claims as a class-action suit, an appeals court has ruled.File Photo

LANSING -- A state appeals court panel has denied more than 500 male minority employees at the Michigan Department of Human Services the ability to sue as a group over the department's promotion policies.

The decision is a setback for the employees, who were pursuing a class-action suit against the department over promotion practices they claim were discriminatory.

All three Michigan Court of Appeals judges concurred in the decision, which sends the case back to Ingham Circuit Court.

The plaintiffs filed suit in May 2006 against the department, citing a January 2006 internal memo that found male minority employees were being promoted into supervisory positions less often than other groups, according to court records.

The trial court certified the plaintiffs as a class in 2007, and the department appealed that decision, which was later vacated by the Michigan Supreme Court and sent back to the trial judge.

The class was certified a second time by the trial judge, who concluded in part that the employees constituted a class because "while not all class members had applied for promotions, all class members had 'an interest in making sure that they are not discriminated against if they do.'"

In its opinion, the appeals court concluded that the employees had not satisfied any of the requirements to pursue the case as a class-action suit, saying each employee's situation raised its own legal and factual questions.

"There is no indication in the record before us that the named representatives have the
same essential characteristics of all the claims regarding all the different types and methods of discrimination by the various actors that the class definition and the minority males' allegations encompass," the judges wrote.

The appeals decision overturns the denial of a dismissal motion filed by the Department of Human Services in the case.

“We believe today’s ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals was legally sound," DHS director Maura Corrigan said in a statement. "We also understand that litigation in this matter may continue and we will abide with the controlling opinion of the courts going forward.”